Nestlé has developed a new resilient and high-yielding arabica coffee variety it believes can help mitigate the impact of climate change on coffee production.
Called Star 4, the “novel high-yielding arabica coffee variety” had been selected in Brazil for its resistance to coffee leaf rust – a common disease resulting from rising global temperatures in coffee producing regions – as well as its distinctive taste, Nestlé said.
It was developed using traditional breeding methods by Nestlé plant scientists and agronomists. The first plants have been tested in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, two traditional coffee growing regions in Brazil.
Read more: How climate change is challenging Peruvian coffee production
Citing recent climate change modelling, Nestlé said the available land suitable to grow arabica coffee could be reduced by more than 50% by 2050.
Producing higher-yielding coffee varieties, therefore, was key to helping mitigate the impact “on the coffee supply chain and to ensure sustainably grown coffee is available to future generations”, it added.
“Optimising cultivation practices remains vital as they are the primary factor contributing to the environmental impact of a cup of coffee,” said Marcelo Burity, Nestlé’s head of green coffee development.
Jeroen Dijkman, head of Nestlé’s institute of agricultural sciences, added: “Our field trials have demonstrated that, using similar inputs, the yields of Star 4 are substantially higher than the two most used Brazilian local varieties, which reduces its carbon footprint.”
It is likely to take several years before Star 4 plants will be disrtibuted to farmers, and it is not clear whether Nestlé sees commercial potential in scaling production of the plant to meet its coffee sourcing requirements.
Beyond the development of Star 4, the fmcg giant has previously developed two robusta varieties, Roubi 1 and Roubi 2, which are being rolled out in Mexico.
It comes as Italian coffee group Lavazza warned that coffee prices – already scaling new highs – were set to rise further due to poor harvests, supply chain disruptions and new EU deforestation regulations.
Chairman Giuseppe Lavazza said the industry was used to fluctuations in prices of arabica beans, but an unprecedented surge in the price of robusta beans – used to make instant coffee and espresso – was piling further pressure on profit margins of coffee suppliers.
London robusta futures reached a new record high on Tuesday of $4,866 a tonne, having leapt 60% so far this year.
Futures of arabica beans in New York hit $5,556 per tonne this week, up 34% since the turn of the year.
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